


amare et sapere vix deo conceditur

by bessemerprocess



Series: Cooperation 'verse [3]
Category: Bones, Criminal Minds
Genre: Crossover, Failed Attempts to Cook, Iraq, Learning To Be In A Relationship, M/M, Running Away, coming home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-12
Updated: 2007-11-12
Packaged: 2017-10-04 17:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack always comes to Spencer, never the other way around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	amare et sapere vix deo conceditur

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place before CM 3x01 but after Bones 4x01. Cooperation 'Verse.

Zack always comes to Spencer, never the other way around. Sure, Spencer had been to Zack's apartment, but Hodgins' security cameras freaked him out, and he'd been tense the entire time, and Zack just didn't see the point in pressing the issue. Spencer's apartment was smaller and crowded with books. Neat enough, cleaner than Zack's place would've been if Hodgins didn't have someone come in and clean once a week, but it feels more like home then anywhere besides the lab.

The tiny kitchen isn't really big enough for both of them to stand in at the same time, but the only food in there was take out and condiments so it didn't bother Zack much. Spencer could cook though he rarely did. Zack had watched him make pancakes one morning in the fall: barefoot and clad only in boxers, pouring the batter into a skillet that looked like Goodwill had rejected it.

They hadn't actually eaten those particular pancakes. Zack had watched the sun light stream into the kitchen from the single window above the sink, folding Spencer in a golden aura. Two minutes later, the pancakes were burnt and Zack was leading him back to the bedroom.  
It's all Zack can think about as he sits on the step up to Spencer's door. He'd left all that for duty, for his sense of righteousness, and then he'd been sent back. Not exactly in disgrace, but also not in honor. He hadn't fit in, hadn't been one of the boys, or even the lovable outcast. Iraq held nothing for him.

They'd fought. Their first real fight, the night Zack told Spencer he was going into a war zone. Science is science is science, but emotion, that's something else. He knows Spencer wants the same thing he does, to give victims back their names, their faces, to retrieve them from the vast, impersonal sea of statistics. Spencer lost his father, might as well have lost his mother, and Zach has always been secure in his parents' love for him. He never considered that Spencer would feel abandoned, would think Zack loved him less.

Instead, he'd tripped all over that particular landmine, and had walked away. Walked half way across the world, and left his lover in the dust. He'd sent postcards, Arabic letters tangled into art on the front, I miss you, I love you, I'm sorry on the back. Spencer had finally written, "I'll be here when you come home."

One sentence. Zack had seen Spencer write ten page letters to his mother, writing about his life as if it were a fairytale. One sentence was all Zack had needed. It was the reason he was sitting on this cold concrete step, waiting for Spencer. Headlights streamed by and Zack watched the cars go by. And then, Spencer bounded up the stairs, wrapping his arms around Zack like he's the only thing in the world, and everything is okay.


End file.
